Adam awoke to Martin and Jay shaking him. He hadn’t rested long, maybe five minutes or so, and Martin had a hand over his mouth. The first thing he checked was that the troll was dead, which was confirmed by seeing Jay kicking the head and its cauterized stump away from the rest of the troll. The smaller boy had a pair of Adam’s pants on, held up by a piece of cord tied around his waist. They were too big for him, but better than Martin’s would have been. As badly fed as Adam had been, Jay had had it much, much worse.
Meeting Martin’s eyes, he saw the man gesturing for continued quiet. He thought about casting Shhhhhhh again, but he needed to know why Martin was looking so concerned first. Adam nodded, and the man pulled his hand back. As he sat up, Martin leaned forwards and breathed into his ear, “There’s more of them moving through the area, all showing signs of fighting.”
Adam’s breath caught in his throat. More trolls? He’d barely survived the fight with one, severely wounded at that, and there were more? Before he had the chance to ask questions Matin continued with more terrible information.
“Killing the cub was necessary, but they’ll be looking for it soon. We need to leave. Give the kid a cookie before he springs another leak.”
If terror hadn’t grabbed ahold of his throat, Adam would have been laughing at Martin’s description of Jay’s condition. Unfortunately, he had just learned that the severely injured, one armed troll he almost died to was a cub. As in a child. In troll “society” he had just killed the equivalent of Jay when he was crouched in the bushes earlier. A child with no combat skills, a temporary illness in the arm it would regrow within a day, and no actual experience with fighting.
And there were many adults passing through nearby.
He scrambled to his feet, finding Jay nearby trying to hand him his dropped knives. He quickly swapped the boy a cookie for them, and then checked them over. The boning knife was in no condition to be used for its intended purpose ever again, or really any purpose. He hadn’t exactly been gentle or careful when trying to dig into the troll cub’s spine, and the knife reflected that. He still put it back in its sheath, although he transferred that one out of his apron and into his backpack. A little intelligent thought pointed out that a meat cleaver was something he might be able to wield, and it would certainly be better than a boning knife for fighting a troll. Even a carving knife was a better choice for troll fighting with its longer length.
Shaking his internal debate over poor knife choices out of his mind, Adam found Martin crouched near the edge of the sparsely covered area they were still in. Motioning Jay to follow but stay low, he moved to the man’s side, nudging him gently to inform him they were there.
Martin tapped his ear, then swept his arm out to indicate the surroundings. Taking the hint, Adam tried to focus his hearing. He hadn’t realized that he had had good reasons to practice working with the upgrades to his senses, so it took him some time to notice what Martin had been indicating. There were a number of two legged creatures moving through the surrounding forest. He couldn’t tell much more than that, nor could he get an accurate count, but it was enough to indicate how much trouble they were in.
Wide eyed, he looked to Martin for help. This wasn’t what he had been expecting from a trip to the forest, although hindsight was making him realize that perhaps he should have been. The guard to his side certainly looked like he was aware that this had been a possibility. The man simply pointed to his eye, and then back to the woods, presumably at a troll in the distance.
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Once more he sent his senses out into the forest, this time focusing on his eyesight. It really was something he would need to put a lot more effort into, now that he knew how useful it was. It took a surprisingly short time to spot the first troll, but movement broke up a lot of their natural camouflage. And so did the blood.
One after the other, he spotted trolls moving through the area. Not one was uninjured. Seeing their size was a shocking reminder of how large the first troll he had seen was, and a realization that he had made them smaller in his memory to reduce the fear. There was no other way he could have mistaken the one he fought for an adult. Their huge size only made the injuries more disquieting.
Like the cub he fought, many were missing an arm, or even two. All of them sported a variety of cuts and gashes that were still bleeding. One of the Lost Trolls that he spotted was down a leg, using a tree club as a sort of crutch, or cane. It wasn’t smart enough to actually make a crutch, but enough to find a tool to fill in the for the leg until it was healed.
Thinking on that missing leg, Adam finally realized what was so wrong with what he was seeing. None of the trolls were healing at the advanced rate that they should. Certainly, they were healing, but it was at a fraction of the usual speed. The gash he had inflicted on the cub’s neck had been influenced by his skill that prevented healing, but it was able to push through that, although at a slower rate. The injuries he was seeing appeared to be influenced by something similar, but at least an order of magnitude stronger.
Leaning closer to Martin he queried, “What did this to them?” When there was no immediate answer, Adam looked at him. What he saw was surprising.
Martin appeared to have aged in the moments they’d been watching the trolls. There was sweat on his brow, a pallor to his skin, and a shaking in his limbs. If he didn’t know better, he would think the man was as injured as he had been. Eventually Martin shook off his silence and spoke, keeping his voice low.
“We’ve never known everything about the Blue Sea Forest. Places like this have too many dangers for coordinated attempts to push deeper. And, really, why would anyone need to? We have enough trouble keeping the roads intact, and fighting off the few creatures that show up there.” He shuddered again, giving Adam a worried feeling.
“Look at them all. I knew there had to be a lot of trolls in the forest, but seeing them all in one place is terrifying. And this is only one group. There has to be a number of others. And something in this forest did that to them.”
He grew pensive. “I never really understood before why we never tried to wipe out the trolls. The army of Sun King City could do the job, I thought. Now, I’m not so sure they could, and I’m positive it’s a bad idea. With the number seen here, the army could take a severe beating trying to wipe them out. They aren’t trained to fight in forests as much. More importantly, if the trolls are taking this kind of damage fighting something in the middle of the forest, what happens when they aren’t here anymore?”
No one spoke for a time. Adam noticed that Jay was crouched on the other side of Martin, and had heard their discussion, but it was a worry for another time.
Eventually, the trolls passed. Their travel had left a mark on the forest; broken tree limbs, crushed bushes, and blood stained leaves. Martin gestured, and they all slowly backed away from the tree line. The trolls were moving parallel to their own path back to the way station, but, after some quiet discussion, they decided to move at an angle to their original path. More important than a return to the way station, was staying away from more trolls.
Five minutes after moving out, disaster struck. A bellowing roar came from the area they had been in. Enraged cries echoed from the surrounding woodlands. The trolls were angry. The cub had been found.